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ProFile: Natalie Nourigat

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Natalie “Tally” Nourigat lives in Portland, Oregon, where she writes and illustrates graphic novels, webcomics, storyboards, concept art, character designs, superhero comics, children’s books, animated PSAs, and movie reviews.  Natalie is a member of Periscope Studio, and has worked with great companies like Dark Horse, Image, BOOM!, and Oni Press. Her graphic novels include “Between Gears” and “A Boy & A Girl”.  Natalie loves traveling and learning languages.  She majored in Japanese in university and spent 2013-2014 in France (Annecy and Paris).  You can find her drawing around Portland with a sketchbook in one hand and coffee in the other.

What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?

I think I was trying to find the comics medium for a long time, that combination of text and images that’s so good for telling a story.  I remember when I was 6 I did my best to retell a scene from my favorite movie with a series of images.  When I was 12, I was writing a lot of prose and interspersing drawings to help tell the story.  When I finally read my first graphic novel at 13, it was like, “Oh!  This is what I was trying to do.”  Once I started reading comics and had that model to study, I switched pretty much immediately to telling my stories in that medium.

What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?

I agonize over my scripts before I start drawing.  Writing doesn’t come easy to me, especially dialogue, and I can spend weeks writing and rewriting even a short comic.  Having an editor helps a lot (including the times they say “hurry up!”).

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?

Don’t compare yourself to others too much.  A little competitive drive is good, but you wouldn’t want to draw like anyone else, even if you could.  It’s better to develop your own, unique thing.  As you create more and more pages, your personal voice will emerge and a lot of people will love it because it’s different than other creators’.

More at http://NatalieNourigat.com/

Video: How to Draw a Leather Jacket in Less Than 3 Minutes

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Here is a little trick to get the job done faster, if you’re trying to draw a leather jacket. It works on other things as well!

There is an Amazon link in the resources section to the acrylic markers shown in this video.

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Money for nothing with Ben Dewey – Comics for Beginners podcast episode 25

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“Think about things in terms of story. Anything else is just flourish and self-promotion”

I talk to artist Ben Dewey about art, music and the Faustian aspect of working crappy jobs while pursuing a carreer in comics creation. Besides being the artist and writer of his own Tragedy Series (http://www.tradegyseries.tumblr.com), he is the artist on Tooth and Claw with writer Kurt Busiek, released this week from Image Comics. Luckily Ben is not just incredibly talented but also very articulate about the craft and the life of a creative person. Really good advice in this episode!

For a preview of Tooth and Claw, go here.

Related podcast: Episode 25 – Periscope Studio with Steve Lieber

Can Marvel do no wrong?

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When I was growing up, the superheroes I knew where two-dimensional four-color characters in comic books. The live action superhero was the cartoony Batman TV show but even as a kid I realized the tackiness of it. It wasn’t until Tim Burton’s 1989 movie Batman that it felt like they at least tried to take it seriously.

Kids today have a much wider access to the characters in both comics, movies and computer games that let you fill the shoes of your favorite heroes. And it’s not just because CGI has improved that the movies have gotten better. It’s because really smart people are involved in making them, from script to screen.

Getting Christopher Nolan on board for the Batman trilogy was no doubt a smart decision. But no sooner had the Dark Knight died (at least that’s my interpretation) before DC Comics dropped the ball again, leaving the field wide open for Marvel to score big with Guardians of the Galaxy – a completely left field choice that won over even the harshest critics.

While DC seems to alienate fans with their new dark and gritty reboot of Superman and the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman, Marvel keeps surprising us with smart and funny movie versions of fan favorites. Apart from the third instalment that is widely regarded as a misfire, the X-Men movies have been pretty great, both faithful to the comics and smartly adapted for the big screen and a wider audience.

In the original X-Men from 2000, there is a great line where Wolverine bitches about the costumes they are prompted to wear in the final confrontation. Cyclops replies: “What would you prefer, yellow spandex?” A great tongue-in-cheek reference to the costumes of the comics, which undoubtedly would have looked ridiculous in the movie, and a great example of fan service while still having the guts to change things for the better.

The strategy has often looked far from obvious. From Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man to the complete surprise hit of the almost unknown Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel have taken bold choices both in casting and in characters, and pulled off the impossible of bringing together a band of heroes from different movies in The Avengers. They have managed to make us all interested in less known characters, at least from a non-fan perspective, and seamlessly woven together intricate plotlines while juggling dozens of characters at the same time.

This week the news that Marvel have cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. strange and new movies will feature heroes such as Captain Marvel and Black Panther. And at the same time this new clip and trailer from the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron aired, sending chills down my spine – and I don’t even know who Ultron is! Didn’t know I cared!

From my perspective it looks like Marvel can do no wrong and it even made me want to read some of the comics again. What do you guys think? Excited for the future of superhero movies? Or just sad that no one knows these blockbuster franchises are based on comics?

Can Comics Composition Be Taught?

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compositionIn any comic, the way the panels arranged on the page is extremely important. Equally important, is what’s inside the panels!

Every panel has it’s own composition. And the arranged panels make up the composition of the page.

It is almost impossible to teach composition. In comics, it’s basically the distribution of black (or dark) shapes on a white page. A good composition is pleasing to the eye and helps guide the reader’s attention. The main focus should be telling the story.

The best advice I can give on composition, is work really hard on your thumbnails. If it works in a two-three inch sketch, it will probably work in full size as well. Ask yourself if it’s clear what’s going on. Is the eye guided down the page? Is it pleasing to look at? Does the page “tip” because there is too much or too little black in some areas?

Another pitfall to avoid is vertical or horizontal lines within the frames, like a wall or a door. If the line art i.e. the thickness of the lines are similar, the eye can easily confuse it with the edge of the panel. If you make sure to break the lines within the panels with an object, a person or a speech ballon, and that will help the reader tell the lines apart.

Take photocopies of your thumbnails, and try going over them with a black marker, trying out different ways to apply shades and blocks of light, to make the page appealing. Remember that speech baloons are part of the picture! And if you intend to color the page that matters as well.

When you are working on the actual page, try tacking it to your wall and taking a few steps back. Quite a few steps, actually! If a panel or page works at a ten feet distance, you’ve done a good job.

If you’re working digitally, be sure to zoom out once in a while for the same effect. Or print it out and doodle on the printout to see what might help adjust the overall expression.

In summary: The more decisions you make at the thumbnail stage, the less trouble you will have with composition at the final inking stage.

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